In practice, the greenback continues to be a safeguard against inflation, an endemic ailment of many Latin American economies. Every month, at a rate of 7% or 8%, the rise in prices eats away the Uruguayans’ peso purchasing power.

Martinez’s article quotes an economist who says that back in the bad old days inflation was 100%. I don’t know if he meant 100% per month, but if he can’t figure out that a monthly inflation rate of 7% to 8% compounds to an annual rate well exceeding 100%, maybe he ought to go back to school.

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Martinez’s article quotes an economist who says that back in the bad old days inflation was 100%. I don’t know if he meant 100% per month, but if he can’t figure out that a monthly inflation rate of 7% to 8% compounds to an annual rate well exceeding 100%, maybe he ought to go back to school.

For around 15 years, from Peronismo to the Junta to the return of democracy, the inflation rate in Argentina was around 100% percent annually and above. [90% to 350% annually, say.] IIRC, it may have been “reduced” to 90% in 1980.

I am sure that Martinez meant 100% per year. With the collapse of the Argentine economy in 1989, inflation in Argentina may have been in the 100%/month range- or more.

If inflation is 7-8% per month in Uruguay, Pepe Mujica’s party has really messed up things. Apres moi, le deluge. [As the saying goes, pardon my French- a language I have never studied.] Not exactly the epitaph Pepe was thinking of.